Ridgecrest’s city council heard a presentation from a marketing expert regarding a planned petroglyph festival in November, and in a separate 5-0 vote, agreed to allocate $15,000 in in-kind and cash to help fund the event.

Ramon Jaime, a logistics and marketing specialist with California Events and Planning, made the pitch that the petroglyph festival, officially dubbed “The Petroglyph and Heritage Festival,” would be a positive thing for the community.

“We believe it completes the heritage of the area, and we didn’t want to be portrayed as just an rock art festival,” Jaime said. He joked that that it might infer that it was related to heavy metal music.

The petroglyph festival is the brainchild of Mayor Dan Clark, the Ridgecrest Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Maturango Museum.

Jaime said that the goal of the petroglyph festival is to draw in tourism, and appeal to the Ridgecrest area’s natural strengths.

“You are blessed with an amazing area, surrounded by public lands,” Jaime said. “That is a tremendous strength in attracting people to the area.”

He linked it to the rise in nature and adventure tourism, which has increased by 65 percent over the last few years.

Jaime added that they want to focus on the area and cultivate the history’s heritage, especially as one of the largest concentrations of petroglyphs in North America. Most are located on Navy property within the confines of Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, and access is limited to a dozen tours every year.

The purpose of the petroglyph festival is to make it a signature event, similar to the Mule Days festival in Bishop.

“When you have it every year, you’re expanding and exposing the area every year that you have it,” Jaime said. “We want to make people aware of Ridgecrest for those who don’t know about it.”

The petroglyph festival would be broken up into different components, including an educational element spearheaded by the Maturango Museum, dedication of the Petroglyph Park at LeRoy Jackson Park, a carnival, a powwow and a street fair on Balsam Street.

Jaime warned that careful planning needs to go into the event, especially when trying to bring people driving two or three hours from different parts of California.

He added that the goal is about celebration of community and pride for the area.

“It’s only based on the amount of support we get from the community,” Jaime said. “This will not be successful unless we have support of the community.”

Justin O’Neill, a social marketing strategist behind the success of the city’s 50th Anniversary street fair, said metrics from that past event were used to project what the petroglyph could bring in.

Page 2 of 2 - “The response in the past has been that Ridgecrest wants this and needs this,” O’Neill said.

Councilwoman Lori Acton asked how many people were projected to attend over three days.

Jaime said that he estimated 7,000 people total over a three-day period, with approximately 80 percent coming from outside the Indian Wells Valley. Of that, the powwow might bring in 3,500 people in and of itself.

Councilman Steven Morgan expressed a few concerns: one, possible bad weather derailing petroglyph tours during November; the other would be the finishing of construction on West Ridgecrest Boulevard.

O’Neill and Jaime both argued that the traffic scenario is being handled and should not be a problem.

Morgan asked about the budget, noting the Ridgecrest Chamber of Commerce has not signed on to financially support it, said Eric Bruen, a board member at the Chamber.

Jaime said no formalized budget was planned just yet, though his firm consistently evaluates things. Sponsorships shouldn’t be a mainstay for the event, as it could fluctuate year-to-year.

“Our budget is very bare-bones because we want to spend locally,” Jaime said, adding that the event may have a budget of no more than $50,000. “Funding of this project is vote of confidence in this community, and when they see it, they really step up with the level of investment.”

Mayor Pro Tem Chip Holloway said his initial concern was the timeline, having heard that Jaime had recommended similar events required at least 18 months of planning.

Jaime confirmed that, but added that his mind was changed once he found out a solid date and program has been created.